Status Report: EVE Online

I restarted EVE with my 600k skill-points character. 50% of those skill points had already been invested into learning skills, the rest allowed me to fly Minmatar cruisers. I had also trained every single skill to at least 2.

I had quit EVE in October last year when I had finally acquired my Rupture. That’s the most expensive Minmatar cruiser, costing 5 million in contrast to about 3 million, which is the cost of the other three cruiser types. The Rupture is slow as hell for a Minmatar ship. Going like 200 m/s, I did a few L1 missions and totally destroyed my enemies. Actually it was annoyingly trivial.

Then I decided to visit Jita. It was great to see such a crowded place in EVE. I put my clone there as it is a great place for shopping. Unfortunately, on my way back I decided to take the risky path through low-sec and right after I quit the second jump gate I saw lots of red ships in the system. I tried to do something, but was already warp scrambled and destroyed within about 15 seconds. I'm rather proud that the Rupture lasted that long, actually. A few seconds later somebody wanted to initiate chat with me. They told me that this is a ransom and I should pay them 20mio.

I asked them why I should pay 20mio after they destroyed my ship (which was worth about 8 million). Since I had about 2 million on the bank account I couldn’t pay and they podded me. I thanked them for the free teleport and told them to not be so trigger-happy in the future if they really wanted a ransom. Then I left the chat, not without noting that we would see again (in a few months, when I would have enough skill points / allies). I made a screenshot of the kill rights, so I won’t forget them. :)

Fortunately, the Rupture was insured and I got 5 million out. Since I didn’t want to bankrupt myself I bought only a Stabber this time. The Stabber is the fastest Minmatar cruiser. It has average defensive capabilities and average firepower – and only space for one drone. The Rupture had space for six. However, the Stabber actually looks real good. The Rupture looked like an upright triangle.

I found that I liked the speed (with afterburners 650 m/s) and put in some powerful short range weapons. This was a mistake as soon as I started to do level II missions, some of which are quite tough. So I replaced the short range turrets with four small artillery and two small missile launchers, but found out again that the range 10km optimal + 8km falloff just wasn’t enough. I ended up putting three medium sized artillery guns in the high slots and filling the remaining three slots with anti-missile missiles and two salvagers. I didn't have enough power to use more than three medium artillery turrets. Now I can effectively fire at 44 km using long range ammunition or 25km with the most powerful ammunition.

Unfortunately, 44 km is the maximum range of the Stabber and my current skills. The turrets could actually be effective at 40 km + 21 km. 44 km, however, were enough to finally rape the pirate Kruul and do a lot of level II missions in low sec.

Long range kiting and sniping, eventually became slow and tedious. Thus I started to go for the 25 km fightig distance soon, effectively betting that I am able to kill them before they kill me. It worked so far :).

By the way: I used the agent finder to find the best agents for me, but I don’t think that such a tool should only be available outside the game; or even necessary at all.

Later in the evening a duo of pirates warped to a mission I was doing. I hastily managed to warp away, only to find out that they were actually faster at warping than I and also knew where I was warping to. As soon as I arrived I was warp scrambled and podded some 30 seconds later. I lost some pretty valuable salvaged parts. I doubt, however that they will be valuable to them. They didn’t look like new players to me.

Next time I will first activate the afterburner and then go at 650 m/s away from them. That might have worked better. With the long range artillery I might even have been dangerous. :)

Alternatively I could have tried to warp to some place, but get out of warp at some 100 km before. I don’t know enough to judge if this might have worked. I don’t even know how they knew where I was warping. Since I had a full capacitator I could also have tried to warp to some far away place; hoping that they cannot follow me there in one warp.

Of course, I could also put some warp core stabilizers in the low slots, but each of them reduces the distance I can fire and doubles the time needed to lock. Having two stabilizers makes my artillery pretty useless short range weapons that don’t hit anything that moves.

Again, I made a screenshot of the kill rights, so that I will some day have my revenge (one month probably won't be enough) and moved on.

Since I couldn’t afford to lose another cruiser, I continued to mission in high sec and also started to salvage every wreck I encounter. This has helped my finances quite a lot. I’ve bought logic and eidetic memory skills for 8 million total and still cannot decide on what to buy with my loyalty points. I do missions for the (Minmatar) Republic fleet only and got 3000 LP by now.

Thursdays and Friday are public holidays here, so that’s when I will try to find some null sec corp that welcomes newbies. So far I do have some fun.

I just need to pull my 22'' monitor just in front of my eyes to be able to lean back in my chair and still read the text. And I need to get up every hour or so and do something else, because a headache sets in. This GUI is the most stupid load of shit I have ever seen. Yes, I did choose these words deliberately.

Otherwise, EVE is GREAT ! :)